If You Were Mine (25 page)

Heather couldn’t believe they’d miss something that

obvious about him. “Haven’t you noticed that
mine
is practicaly

his favorite word?”

Nicola started choking on her sip of wine and as Chloe

patted her back, she told Heather, “Chase and I tried the

friends-with-benefits thing.” She looked down at her bely.

“Pretty obvious how wel that worked for us, isn’t it?”

Heather wasn’t sure if that was supposed to make her feel

better or worse about her agreement with Zach. But before she

could decide, Nicola said, “Cover your ears, girls,” to Lori and

Sophie, before teling Heather, “Marcus and I skipped the whole

friends thing and went straight for the benefits. It was just

supposed to be a one-night fling.”

“I stil can’t believe you fel asleep on him during your one-

night stand,” Lori said.

Nicola shot her a mock frown. “Can’t you at least pretend

that you don’t know al the details of my whirlwind romance with

your oldest brother?”

Lori roled her eyes. “We’re Sulivans. It’s our code to

know absolutely everything about each other. Right, Soph?”

Sophie took a sip from her glass of sparkling grape juice.

“Unfortunately, yes.” Just as Lori’s mouth opened, likely to say

something incriminating, Sophie beat her to the punch by teling

Heather, “I seduced Jake at Chloe’s wedding and ended up

pregnant. But it turned out he’d been in love with me for as long

as I’d been in love with him, so it al ended up working out.”

Heather was overwhelmed not only by how open each of

Heather was overwhelmed not only by how open each of

the women was being with her—and each other—but also by

what they’d told her about the other Sulivans. Each of their one-

night stand and friends-with-benefits attempts had turned into

long-term relationships and marriages.

Oh no
...what was she doing?

And just how far over her head was she realy?

“Zach’s racing for Tommy’s team tomorrow in LA, isn’t

he?” Lori asked.

“I hate it when he does those races,” Sophie admitted. “At

least when Gabe is running into burning buildings, I know he’s

facing danger to help people. But if Zach crashes, it’s just for

fun. I swear I’l never forgive him if he gets hurt in one of those

stupid races.”

Sophie’s concerns echoed the ones Heather had been

trying to push away ever since Zach had mentioned the race.

Lori dismissed it with a simple, “Zach is indestructible.”

Maybe it was the wine, maybe it was the way just thinking

about him made her endorphins shoot off into the stratosphere,

but Heather wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out Zach actualy

was indestructible.

Unfortunately, she was pretty sure that she wasn’t...and

when the day came that friends-with-benefits turned to just-

friends, or to nothing at al, she was no longer sure she’d be

walking away from that crash in one piece.

Even if Zach could, al too easily.

Monday morning came too bright and early for the little

sleep Heather had managed. She told herself it was one too

many dark chocolate brownies that had kept her awake, rather

than the way the bed already seemed too big without Zach

holding her as she slept.

They’d only spent two nights together. She couldn’t

possibly miss him already, and shouldn’t be on pins and needles

over worries about him getting hurt in the race that morning.

An hour later, after checking in with her staff and accepting

their congratulations on the successful fundraiser, she settled in

behind her computer in her office. Atlas immediately took his

place on the big dog bed in the corner and closed his eyes to

take his morning nap. But instead of draping herself over Atlas

the way she usualy did, Cuddles stood in the middle of the room

and gave Heather one of those pathetic little whines she’d started

last night when she realized Zach wasn’t back yet.

Heather scooped up the puppy and gave her a kiss on her

muzzle. “Don’t worry, he’l be home soon.” When the puppy stil

looked sad, she found herself echoing Lori’s words from the

night before. “Zach is indestructible. He’l be just fine. How

about we watch him win the race together?”

She kept the puppy on her lap as she clicked on the live

streaming link he’d emailed her. A bunch of men in colorful

racing suits were walking around the fancy cars, but it wasn’t

hard for her to spot Zach. He was taler, broader, a thousand

hard for her to spot Zach. He was taler, broader, a thousand

times sexier than any of the other drivers.

Her heart beat a little faster just watching him run one big

hand over the body of the car, and thril bumps lifted across the

surface of her skin as if he were touching her instead of the

vehicle.

Cuddles let out a soft yap that made Heather think she

could see Zach on the screen, too, and it made Heather’s

stomach hurt to think of how the puppy was going to react when

Zach gave her back to his brother.

There was no way for the young dog to understand that she

shouldn’t have let herself get so attached to him, that she

shouldn’t have made the mistake of faling in love with him.

Good words of warning for al females everywhere.

The drivers got into their cars and Heather gripped the

puppy tighter, burying her chin in the super-soft fur on top of

Cuddles’s head as the cars zipped away from the starting

blocks. Zach was in the Sulivan Autos car, of course, the now-

familiar blue and gold logo a blur as he pushed the pedal to the

metal.

She couldn’t believe how close he got to the other cars as

he did one lap, then two, then three. He wasn’t in the lead yet,

but something told her he was simply biding his time, taking it

easy the way it always looked like he did, before going al in for

the win.

She remembered what he’d said to her in the elevator:

Trust me,
whenever I’ve decided to focus on something I

want, I always get it.

want, I always get it.

No question about it, Zach Sulivan wouldn’t race if he

wasn’t in it for the win.

Again and again the cars wove around the track, until

seemingly from out of nowhere, Zach’s car shot out ahead of the

pack, and they were al eating his dust.

For a moment, she forgot to be scared about his getting

hurt as she chanted, “Go, go, go!” at the screen.

Cuddles was standing with her front paws on the desk,

joining in with her in dog language. And when Zach finished the

race a good car length ahead of the rest, she lifted the puppy up

and cheered.

Only, it turned out the two of them weren’t the only ones

who were happy with Zach’s performance. Because as he

unfolded his large body from the car, several scantily clad girls

rushed over to him and wrapped their perfect bodies around him

in congratulations.

Tina knocked, then popped her head in. “I thought I heard

you cal for me. Is everything okay in here?”

God, no, it wasn’t okay. How could it be when she was

literaly being eaten up, inside and out, by jealousy? She wanted

to rip the other women’s hands off Zach.

He was
hers
!

She clicked on the little X at the top of her screen to close

the streaming video and nodded at Tina. “Everything’s fine,

thanks.”

It would be, at least, once she’d set her brain back to rights

It would be, at least, once she’d set her brain back to rights

and refocused her attention where it should be.

She put Cuddles on the floor. “I’d like to go over the final

numbers for the shelter this morning so that I can draft up a

release on it by tonight.”

But as soon as they puled up the spreadsheet to taly up

the expenses and income from the auction items, and Tina

exclaimed over the Lamborghini that Zach had donated, Heather

realized it wasn’t going to be quite that easy.

Because somehow, in the span of one short week, Zach

Sulivan had infiltrated every part of her life.

* * *

than the rush of being in a race car.

Being with Heather was better. Way better.

When Tommy had caled to ask him to race, for the first

time ever, instead of jumping at the chance, Zach had tried to

turn him down. He’d told himself it was because he wanted to

stay with Heather in the hotel room to spend the entire day

exploring every inch of her skin, to make her laugh between

acrobatic bouts of lovemaking, to watch her eyes light up and

her skin flush with joy and then the heat of desire again and

again.

But even as he tried to deny the truth, he knew his reasons

for not wanting to race were bigger than that.

What, he couldn’t stop wondering, if this was it? What if his

What, he couldn’t stop wondering, if this was it? What if his

number came up on the race track...and he didn’t get to see

Heather again?

No.

He’d been careful. So had she. They’d agreed not to fal in

love with each other.

Besides, he hadn’t died in the race. Not this time, anyway.

Zach jumped out of his car in front of her building and

nearly knocked over a group of poodles as he ran inside to get

to her. Her assistant was in the middle of saying helo when he

barged past her and into Heather’s office.

It nearly kiled him to take the time to lock the door behind

him and pul down the blinds on her window before he grabbed

her from where she was standing at her file cabinet. The papers

in her hands scattered al over the floor as he slid his hands into

her hair.

A second later, her legs were around his waist, and he was

lowering her down over her desk, his mouth locked to hers while

she kissed him back just as passionately as he was kissing her.

She made a smal sound of pain and he shoved a stapler out

from under her. Using his hands to caress the softness of her hip

where it had dug in reminded him of the way she’d felt when

he’d been massaging her in the hotel.

“Missed you,” he said between nipping at her lips and

yanking off her long-sleeved shirt. He pressed a kiss right

between her breasts. “Needed you.”

He thought he saw her eyes flash with something more than

desire as she folowed suit by roughly yanking his T-shirt over his

desire as she folowed suit by roughly yanking his T-shirt over his

head. She leaned into his chest and he thought she was kissing

him until he realized they were more little bites that she was

giving him al over. Jesus, it was hot, but a whole hel of a lot

more aggressive than she’d ever been before.

Despite how badly he wanted her, his internal radar was

going off. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she said, but again there was that flash in her

eyes that looked too much like anger, and when she folowed it

up with, “Just shut up and do me already,” he knew a hel of a lot

more than
nothing
was wrong.

Somewhere between their extraordinary hours together at

the Fairmont and now, he must have screwed up. He didn’t have

the first clue how, just that he had.

With any other woman he wouldn’t have cared, would

have just finished doing her and then gotten out of there. But he

and Heather were more than just bang-buddies.

“What did I do?”

“You went and did your stupid race, even though you could

have been hurt.” The lingering worry in her eyes was quickly

masked as she snarled, “Congratulations on your big win.”

It was hard trying to think around the low level of blood in

his brain, with her legs stil around his and her beautiful breasts

bounding around in a white cotton bra that shouldn’t have been

sexy but made it nearly impossible for him to form a coherent

sentence.

Stil, he knew he’d better figure out how to get his brain to

work real quick, because he had a feeling a whole lot more than

a hot quickie was at stake.

“You watched me race?”

“Cuddles wanted to.”

She pressed her lips together hard as if she dared him to

chalenge that sily statement, and he barely checked the urge to

lick across the firm line of her pretty lips.

“So you saw me blow the other guys out of the water?”

“Among other things,” she muttered. “You certainly don’t

need me to keep congratulating you, when everyone else did